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California class cruiser
The California class nuclear-powered guided-missile cruisers are a set of two of nuclear-powered guided missile cruisers operated by the United States Navy since 1974. Other than their nuclear power supply and lack of helicopter hangars, ships of the California class were comparable to other guided missile cruisers of their era, such as the Belknap class cruiser. The class was built as a follow-up to the nuclear-powered Long Beach class cruiser, Bainbridge class cruiser, and Truxtun class cruiser classes. Like all of the nuclear cruisers, which could steam for years between refuelings, the California class was designed in part to provide high endurance escort for the navy's nuclear aircraft carriers, which were often limited in range due to their conventionally powered escorts continuously needing to be refueled. Overview The lead ship, USS California (CGN-36) was the fourth nuclear powered cruiser in the U.S. Navy; the previous three were the USS Long Beach (CGN-9), USS Bainbridge (CGN-25) and USS Truxtun (CGN-35). The second California class cruiser, USS South Carolina (CGN-37), was the fifth nuclear-powered cruiser in the United States Navy. Other than the twelve battlecruisers of the Soviet Navy's Kirov class battlecruiser, which were actually built with a combination of nuclear and fossil-fuel propulsion, no other country has launched nuclear-powered cruisers. Only two ships of the class were built, the California and the South Carolina, and both were decommissioned in the autumn of 1999. These ships were followed on by the eleven nuclear-powered guided-missile cruisers of the Virginia class cruiser. These cruisers were named for states because they were seen as quite large, powerful, capable, and survivable ships. Also, in the meantime, the names of cities had been given to the nuclear submarines in the very large Los Angeles class submarine, which eventually expanded to 62 boats, all (but one) named for American cities. The USS California and her sister ship the USS South Carolina were equipped with two Mk-13 launchers, fore and aft, capable of firing the RIM-66 Standard SM-1MR or SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles, one Mk-112 launcher for RUS-5 ASROC missiles, and eight Mk-141 launch tubes for Harpoon missiles. They were equipped with two Mk-45 5" rapid-fire guns, fore and aft. Four 12.75" torpedo launchers (two on each side, protruding from their magazine space on the main deck) were fitted for light weight anti-submarine torpedoes. Two Mk-15 Phalanx 20 mm gun systems were fitted in the 1980s. The ships were originally designed to carry and launch the Mark 48 torpedo from a large space beneath the flight deck aft. Although a surface-launched version of the Mk 48 was never produced, the ships retained this large magazine space until their retirement. Both ships underwent a mid-life refueling overhaul in the early 1990s. This modernization upgraded their two 150 MW D2G reactor plants with new 165 MW D2W reactor cores, installed the New Threat Upgrade (NTU) to improve their Anti-aircraft warfare capability, and removed their Anti-ship warfare capability, which involved disabling their SQS-26 sonar and removing their anti-submarine weapons. External differences resulting from this modernization included the removal of the ASROC launcher and the large deckhouse forward of it that served as the ASROC magazine, replacement of the SPS-40 radar antenna with the SPS-49 antenna, and replacement of the SPS-48C with the larger SPS-48E antenna. Both ships retained the bulbous sonar domes at the forefoot (beneath the waterline) to this day. Ships in class Category:Cruisers of the United States Navy Category:Guided-missile cruisers of the United States Navy Category:California class cruiser